


Gamers

by polybi



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Drama, F/F, Mystery, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-22 06:16:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3718204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polybi/pseuds/polybi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My (tepid) response to the events of "The Cricket Game." in Season two Something about Archie's "murder" is gnawing at Snow White. Could it be that the Evil Queen is innocent? Canon-based AU. That should cover me...SwanQueen at the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Once Upon a Time is property of Disney/ABC, not mine. If it was, Regina would not be going through the wringer every single blessed week.
> 
> As one author said, its now a habit: Adam & Eddie throw Regina in the hole, we EvilRegals, SwanQueeners, and other Oncers rescue her via fanfics. Well, this is my life preserver from the second season. It will only be a few chapters and not much SQ. And because it is my feelings of how things should go, let’s call it canon-based AU, shall we?

**_“If I did, you probably wouldn’t know about it.....”_ **

* * *

Somehow it tugged on Snow White’s mind for most of the evening.  It tugged on her mind while she was preparing dinner for herself and James.  Tugged at her during dinner even as the pair giggled about daughter and grandson walking in while in the midst of...as Red would say...getting busy. And when sleep finally came to her husband David, aka “Charming,” it tugged on Snow for most of the night.

Archie Hopper was dead.  Archie Hopper, aka, Jiminy Cricket. Dead. Strangled. By Regina Mills. Evil Queen. Possessor of great magic. Regina Mills strangled Archie Hopper to death.

That didn’t add up.

Snow had known Regina longer than anyone in Storybrooke.  Hell, she was, in part, the reason for Storybrooke. Since that day when the older woman saved her from a runaway horse, Snow and Regina had either saved each other or stopped close to each others deaths.  There was a connection between them that could not be explained, but it was a connection that made her understand something about her arch enemy. 

Regina could not have strangled Archie.

It wasn't her style.  She either use magic or sent someone else to do the dirty deed. But to her knowledge, Regina had never used her hands to physically kill anyone.

But the evidence: Red seeing Regina go into Archie’s office, the argument before. Emma using the dream catcher on Pongo to see Regina do the deed.  I should add up.

But it wasn't the way Regina would do anything.  And even if she strangled Archie because she promised her son she wouldn't use magic....would all bets be off if you killed someone anyway?

There minutes of sleep, punctuated by hours awake.  James slept like the dead. Emma and Henry were sleeping in the other room. The house was deadly quiet. And Snow lay next to David. Thinking.

They’ve never really figured out how an idea or a memory does come to a brain. A picture or a glimpse of something, or maybe the right neurons hitting each other at the right exact time.  At 4:11 on a Friday morning two neurons clicked in the dead of Snow White.  Just a fleeting thought at first, then pounding forward like a bad headache.  And finally the idea burst forward...

 

Lancelot.

 

Lancelot.

 

LANCELOT.

 

Snow sprang from the bed, awakening her Charming, but she was too focused on the room down the hall.

 

_**LANCELOT.** _

 

Snow had the answer in her head. And she had to get to Emma before the thought evaporated.

Snow didn’t knock, she banged. James followed in what-the-hell’s-going-on? mode. Within moments, a disheveled, pissed-off Emma Swan opened the door and faced a disheveled, excited Snow White, aka Mary-Margaret Blanchard. “Mary-Margaret, its 4:30 in the freaking morning.....this had better be good.”

Snow, out of breath responded: “I can prove Regina didn’t kill Archie...”

THAT got Emma’s attention.

* * *

 

 

In the last few years, one of the things that David Nolan, aka Prince James, did master was brewing a pretty decent cup of joe.  Emma and Snow were sipping on unsweetened black ups of said coffee when mother laid out her theory to her daughter.

“Remember Lancelot?,” referring to the knight whose path Emma and Snow crossed in their adventure in Snow’s former realm.  Emma nodded yes, and Snow continued: “You remember he wasn't really Lancelot, it was Regina’s mother. She made it look as if she was Lancelot.”

Emma’s eyebrows were raised. “Are you saying that...that Cora killed Archie?”

“Its possible....”

“But we closed that portal,” Emma said with the coffee kicking in, “Regina kept Cora from coming in.”

“But what if Cora found another way through?”

David sat down with his cup. He had been listening and trying to put two and two together himself.  “So what you are saying is that Cora’s mother might be in Storybrooke?”

“Very possible, Charming,” Snow replied, then turned back to Emma. “You said that Red saw Regina go into Archie’s office, right?” Emma nodded, Snow continued. “So it is possible that who Red saw was not Regina, but Cora appearing like Regina...”

The light came on quick for both daughter and father. It was David, who asked, understandably, “but why would Cora kill Archie?”

“First, Charming, the most obvious answer would be to frame Regina...for revenge or whatever.  Second, how do we know it was Archie?”  David was, as usual, slow on the uptake, but Emma, having dealt with Cora was getting exactly what her mom was getting at. “So the corpse is an illusion too?”  Snow simply nodded and said, “Its possible..”

David interjected: “Darling why are you defending Regina like this...I mean after everything....”

“Charming....if we’re supposed to be the good guys, we have to stand up for what’s right. And framing an innocent person is not right.  Even if it’s Regina.”

Emma Swan smiled at her mom.  And then the sheriff began to delegate. “Mom, can you fix a real big breakfast?  We’re going to be real busy to day.  And David...uh...dad...uh...”

David Nolan just laughed: “I get it hon..”

Emma returned that chuckle: “Anyway....remind me to get Ruby out of bed later this morning.  We got a lot of work ahead of us..”

And as David got up to start with kitchen help, Emma and Snow sipped the last of their cups of coffee, know that each in their own way may be about to rescue Regina Mills one more time.  If for no other reason than it is what good people do.  And if you pressed them on it...they would secretly admit that the Evil Queen was also...deep down...a good person  too...

 

 


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Emma and Ruby search for clues, Regina takes matters into her own hands...

Sheriff Swan’s phone rang just as she, and Ruby got to the door of the office of the late Archie Hopper, PhD.  It was Assistant Deputy and Sheriff’s Dad david Nolan.  He was charged with finding one former mayor after she disappeared the day before. Basically he call to say no luck. Emma told Dad to keep looking, hung up the phone, Moved the yellow table the way, Put the key in the door, And let herself, her mom, and her best friend enter the office.

Now granted, the forensic knowledge of the two detectives in the office at that point was pretty much anything they gathered on any random episode of NCIS or even Castle.  But based on the theory that Snow rambled out at five in the morning,  the sheriff need to know if there was anything might have missed. If Cora DID murder Archie, how careful was she? How much of 2013 life did she pick up?

 

Emma: "Something obvious that we didn't see the last time. Anything we may have missed."

A pair of scrunched-up faces stood in that office saying nothing for moments. Emma ran through her mind all the things that were picked up as evidence. The she realizes....

His glasses.  The one thing they did not see. His glasses.

The pair started to comb the office inside and out to try to find those hornrims.  They couldn’t, but Red did find something. “A camera?”

A camera.  Connected to a well hidden CCTV security system.  It was 1982 vintage, like almost everything in Storybrooke.  But the system looked like it had been running recently. The other night, perhaps.

Emma took the tape that was in the recorder (Betamax...how quaint) and entered it into the playback connected to a TV that was in the corner.  After some trial and error (Emma couldn’t work the Dish DVR she had back in Boston to save her life), she finally figured out monitored rewind and the time code.  Thankfully the time code shows that it could have recorded the entire murder.

Sure enough, it recorded what probably were Archie Hopper’s final moments.

He opened the door, a woman walked in.  Wait....that’s not Regina. Almost instantaneously, Emma did recognize the woman who throttled and doctor.

“Cora?”

“Who’s Cora, Ems?”

“Regina’s mother.”

“Shit.”

The playback showed the smoke.  The two people who disappeared.  And one person left in their wake.  A dead body. Only that body didn’t look like Archie.  More like...

“Ems, that guy looks like guy who runs the fish shop near the harbor.” Emma looked at her deputy/friend with some puzzlement...she still after a year didn’t  know a lot about the town she was protecting.  “His name is...or was...Bill.”

“Well, we’ll check to see if this Bill shows up to open his shop today, and I would like to see whoever is on that slab we tagged as Archie.”

“So why does it show this on the tape?”

“When we were in the Enchanted Forest, Snow and I saw this guy named Lancelot turn into Cora.  I’m assuming that Lancelot was an illusion...”

“....and what we’ve been seeing was an illusion as well?” The wolf was catching on.

“Maybe. And maybe....Cora doesn’t know about things like cameras”

Exchanging half-knowing glances, the sheriff and the deputy still  were trying to figure thing out, but they both knew one thing: Regina didn’t do it.

It was then that Emma’s phone vibrated. She picked it up and read the text.  It was from Snow:

 

**EMMA....WEST CITY LIMITS....IT’S REGINA....HURRY...**

  
TBC


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just for the record:
> 
> Basis: A re-do of OUAT 2x10 “The Cricket Game.” AU from that point
> 
> Relationships: Slight Swan/Queen Very very slight Snow/Queen (mostly friendship), Snowing
> 
> Disclaimer: Once Upon A Time owned by Disney/ABC Studios. We’re just cleaning up their mess. This is highly un-beta’ed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger caution: suicidal thoughts...

For all her past bravado, Regina Coralina Mills had been running scared all her life.  She was scared she would lose her childhood happiness at the hands of her mother.  She was scared that she would lose her love with Daniel. She was scared that she would lose her “happy ending,” which is why she created Storybrooke and the curse (though if any of the town’s residents were truly honest with themselves, it was less of a curse and more of a reset button, considering that many of their lives wound up far better in many ways in Maine than in the Enchanted Forest). She was afraid to lose love again with her adopted son.

But for all her running, she lost everything anyway.  The only thing that she was still afraid of was death.  Bur Regina Mills had decided not to run anymore.  

She could have committed suicide, but there were no pills, no gun.  No spell that would cause her to die.  She could have just confessed to the murder of Archie Hopper and just wait for the execution/lynching, but that would take time, and with her luck, that damned sheriff would have her equally damned sense of justice kick in and order a trial, even if it were of the kangaroo variety.

Emma Swan.  Maybe the last person who believed in her.  Maybe even the last person to have some kind of feelings for her.  Oh, she did a good job of throwing that away.  Literally.  Just as much as she threw away the love that Snow White had for her.

Yes, there was an almost microscopic period of time when Regina Mills loved Snow White.  And maybe she her.  Maybe they still did.  Something had to account for all the times they tried to kill each other (at great effort) and failed.

And maybe Henry. Her darling darling boy, who she love more than if he sprang from herself. And as much as she tried to keep his love, his concrete sense of good and evil destroyed it, never realizing that sometimes good and evil may be the same thing.

All gone now. Left or pushed away. All her own doing.  And since direct suicide was out of the question, the brilliant curse she created offered her a final exit.

Walk out of her own creation.  

The price for leaving Storybrooke was almost custom made for the departed. Ruby (another love she pushed away) almost lost her Granny.  Sneezy Clark lost his memory. Kathryn never really said what happened to her.  Not that it mattered.

Regina left her beloved Mercedes-Benz SL on the side of the road and walked a mile, barefooted.  Space would prevent her from changing her mind.  And with every step, she wondered what would happen.  Loss of memory? Sudden aging? Maybe she’d go out Oz-style and melt.  Or maybe the curse would fully break, everyone would go back to their beloved Forest.  Maybe they will all be happy and Henry can be with his real mother, and they will all forget her.  Maybe it will all be for the best.  One last stab at a good deed.

It was what she was thinking when she approached about a half a yard from the line in the road that someone....she heard it was that insensitive dwarf Leroy...drew. Just two small steps and it would all be over.  Two steps, and everyone would be happy.  Except her.  Regina Mills felt she relinquished her right to happiness long ago.

It was as she started to move that everything happened almost in a flash.  The screeching tires.  The slamming of two doors.  The scream of “REGINA!” The attempt to run to the line. The two arms of a strong woman grabbing Regina’s  waist and  slamming her down on the road and pinning her. The looking up to see the woman who grabbed was Sheriff Emma Swan. The blond woman looking at the brunette. with a mixture of anger, concern, and...maybe....no, it couldn’t be that.

“Ms Swan! What are you doing?” Emma always showed up at the wrong time, and Regina was angry at that. But then people who want to end it all usually are angry at the person saving them.  Archie probably would have said that.

“I was going to ask you the same question, Regina!  Do you think running way would solve anything?”

“Yes, it will!,” Regina protested. “I’ll be gone and everyone would be happy.  No one believes in me anyway...”

“I do.” Emma looked at Regina as if her eyes were trying to convey more than just a belief in someone.  Maybe feeling stronger than mere belief. “And I’m sorry. I didn’t know the whole story.”

“What do you mean?” The last word accentuated with skepticism. Maybe it’s just a ruse to get her back in a cell.  No matter.  Nothing matters now....

“I mean...we have evidence that clears you.”

Regina stared at Emma, looking up to her bluish eyes, with a sense of wonder and puzzlement. “What changed your mind really...?

“Well, I’m not the only one who cares. Someone had to convince me to take a second look.”

“Its not Henry. I know.”

“Henry cares...and he misses you....but that’s not the person I’m talking about.” Emma then pointed up, and Regina turned to that fingers general direction and saw a pixie in a blue dress, red eyes and tear-stained face gazing at the former mayor.

“Snow?”

Snow White nodded her head and tearfully said......”Hi.”

Regina could not believe it. The woman she hated for all these years.  The very reason for the curse was the one who rescued her.  Regina could not speak, her lips only formed the word “Why...?”

The woman who at one time was Regina’s stepdaughter knelt down and met her adversaries gaze.  It was not the look of hate Regina saw, but the look....the exact look...of a young girl who was just rescued by a young woman pure of heart and love. “I kept thinking about it and I realized, after all the times we tried to do each other in, that you simply would not do something like that....that way.”

Regina was on the verge of letting go all emotions. “You believed in me?”

Snow, now crying uncontrollably, simply nodded. Emma, now herself starting to get emotional simply said, “We both did.”

No one could hold it in anymore. Regina took Snow in one arm and Emma in the other and hugged them both as if letting go was death.  Mother and daughter returned the embrace just as tightly. Snow kissed Regina’s cheek for a long time. Emma kissed Regina’s cheek for an even longer time.  Afterwards the three women looked at each other.

There was a long period of silence. Then Emma said, “Let’s go home.”

The trio slowly got up, walked to the patrol car and got in.  Emma would drive Regina back to her Benz.

“You know, I really don’t have a home anymore.” Regina mentioned, recovering.

“You have the mayor’s mansion,” Snow reminded the Evil Queen.

“If you remember, I am no longer Mayor.”

“Regina,” Snow said, easing a smile, “that was never.... _official_.”  The smirk on Emma’s face was growing wider and Regina’s jaw was starting to drop from her backseat perch. “We’ll talk about it on the way back,” Snow added.

And as the cruiser slowly turned around and drove back, in that car’s back seat was a floored Regina Coralina Mills, wondering if this was, indeed, what redemption felt like.

* * *

 

Ruby was back at Archie’s office beginning to take some pictures of the crime scene. Granny was passing by....actually, she was walking right up there wondering if her niece would pause in playing CSI: Storybrooke long enough to do her day job at the Inn.

After a bit of “discussion” (loud arguing, actually), Ruby told Granny that as soon as Emma came back she report for bar-tending duty.

“However...,” Ruby smiled in sweet-wolf mode to Granny, let me take a picture of ya!”  

The elder Ms. Lucas was not enthused about it, but if it can get ruby behind the counter...just one.

Ruby got Granny to position herself with Storybrooke Harbor in the background.  It was a beautiful day anyway with not a cloud in the sky or a boat in the harbor.

It was when she aimed the digital camera at a smiling Granny that Ruby lost  almost all color in her face.  She checked the digital viewfinder, then her eyes. Ruby then called Granny over who asked what was up.  

Ruby pointed out the clear view of the waterfront from where they were standing.  Then when the younger Lucas pointed the electronic viewfinder towards the ocean, there was an image of a sailing ship.  An image that got larger when Ruby activated the zoom.

But was the flag on that ship that gave Granny the chills. Emma told Granny and Rubes about her adventure in the Enchanted Forest, and meeting up with Captain Hook and Regina’s mother.

The flag was solid black.

“Mercy. That’s the Jolly Roger.” A panicked Granny remarked.

“You mean Captain Hook is in Storybrooke?,” asked Ruby.

“Worse....it means Cora may be with him.  And if CORA’s in Storybrooke...Gods help us.  All of us.  Including Regina...”

* * *

**TBC**

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short one...More or less just Snow and Regina.

Emma dropped Snow White and Regina Mills off at Regina’s Benz that she left at the side of the road.  The apparently reinstated Mayor of Storybrooke was still befuddled by the turn of events of the last 15 minutes.  

15 minutes ago, Regina fully expected to be dead, or without memory.  She was saved from that self-inflicted wound by the last person anyone would ever think of doing that.  So before that “last person” climbed into her car, she wanted some questions answered.

Regina was not in “Evil Queen” mode.  She was too shell-shocked by the events of the last 72 hours to be that. But she wanted to know why.  Why was she the one who saved her?

“I told you Regina...all of the evidence seemed to point to you, but it didn't make sense....”

“No, Snow. You could have left me hanging in the wind.  You would have finally won. Why?”

Snow bowed her head for a moment, then looked into the brown eyes of Regina, eyes that had become much softer than they used to be.  In fact she remembered the last time those eyes were that soft.  At that time Regina and her Daniel were getting ready to elope.

“Remember when I was in jail because everyone thought I had done something to Kathryn..?” Regina tried to say that she was sorry, but Snow held  up one hand and stopped the forward progress of those words. “You grabbed my face and told me that you were glad I was going away.  Remember that?”

Now Regina knew why she saved her.  THIS was the revenge of Snow White. She had resigned herself to whatever Snow would do to her, in the middle of nowhere. Snow would simply say Regina attacked her and that the Evil Queen was never going to change.  But that would not happen.

“You told me that you were glad you were sending me away from Storybrooke.  Your. Exact. Words.”

Regina was nothing but trembling gelatin at this point.

“You wanted to send me away.  Not kill me. Just send me away....Regina...you couldn’t kill me if you wanted to.  And I couldn’t kill you.  You want to know why I did it? I don’t know if it is love or something else......but it’s there.  I feel it for you, Regina.. And you feel it for me.”

And then Snow, still looking at Regina eye-to-eye, got very still and said, “I forgive you.” And then the White Queen kissed the Evil Queen’s face.  Left Cheek. Right Cheek. Forehead.

Lips.

And when Snow’s lips left the other’s, Regina’s lips were trembling. “I forgive you, Snow.”

And then they embraced.  They held each other as if letting go would be death.  Decades. Centuries. A feud that lasted that long could not fully end in a half hour. Or with one embrace.

But it’s a start.

**TBC**

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

As the town rose up to meet them as they rode in the SL, Regina (driver) and Snow were contemplating a few things. One, how do you continue to repair a relationship damaged after several centuries? Then there was the pressing matter of who actually killed Archie Hopper if it wasn't Regina. Not to mention what will happen when Snow’s Prince Charming finds out the bane of the existence of all of Storybrooke is now mayor again. Not to mention when Storybrooke finds out.

As the car rolled up to Archie Hopper’s office, there was a rather animated group of people gathered in front of it: Emma, Ruby, and Granny, all taking turns looking at the electronic viewfinder. Regina and Snow got out of the Benz and joined them.

“Contemplating a group picture, Ms. Swan?” It seems that Regina Mills is already getting back to her old self, and if anyone noticed the small smirks on the faces of Snow and Emma, one would say it was a good thing.

The mayor was answered by Ruby, who first apologized for intruding on Regina and Archie’s conversation (and admitting that “go take yourself for a walk was pretty slick, actually), showed Regina what the commotion was about. Though the waterfront looked peaceful and empty, the electronic viewfinder clearly showed a sailboat. A boat that Regina knew all too well.

Well enough that all the color. drained from Regina’s face. At that point, she realized what that meant.

“Mother. My gods. Mother...”

David got the text message and got to the sheriff’s office as quickly as possible. When he got in, he saw his daughter, his Snow, Ruby and a pretty worn out looking Regina. When he asked (A) what was going on and (B) what was the former mayor doing there, Emma simply told her dad to sit down and look at the TV screen.

She had to track down a Betamax machine to play the tape, since....like the real world in 1982, most folks favored VHS to Beta. But she did find a Beta machine that Tom Clark, the owner of the pharmacy, got but never hooked up (Snow said something about him doing something about those allergies he had, poor guy). Once she got the tape to play, she fast-forwarded to the moment that Regina entered Archie’s office. It ran through everything, except for the fact that the woman who was choking Archie and immobilized Pongo was really Regina’s mom, Cora. 

Regina was wide-eyed in shock. Her worst nightmare had come to pass. Maybe, she thought, it would have been better to cross that border. But then, the tape showed the camera caught something: Cora taking a fish out of her bag. A puff of purple smoke: and a different man appears. More smoke....and Emma stops the tape.

“Now I assume that this is the point where Cora would turn the fish into the real dead person.” Ruby recognizes the deceased immediately: “I was right, it the guy who runs the fish shop...Bill.”

And as Archie lay unconscious, it is Bill the fish shop guy who has the life sucked out of him. Then quickly, more purple smoke, this time covering the out-of-it Archie. The smoke quickly dissipates, and it its wake, a small cricket remains. Cora picks up the cricket and walks out.

Four people sit amazed at what they have just seen. Silence fills the room as everyone's lets things settle in. David is the first to break the silence: “Emma, how do you know its not a trick by Regina”

It is a annoyed Regina who answers....but she keeps it down to a very low simmer: “Illusions, David, work on the human mind. But Cora knows nothing about modern technology. Therefore, her illusions don’t work on video...”

Emma added: “Cora probably waited until there was a witness to see her go in..”

Ruby sheepishly raised her hand, signifying that she is the guilty party.

Now Regina has a look like a cloud has come over her. “She’s here....she’s here, and she has Archie....”

Emma knelt down to the seated Regina, “Don’t worry. We’re gonna find Archie and clear you of this. And we’re all going to protect you.” Then Emma turned to the remaining three in the room: “Right?”

Snow’s response was an energetic yes. Ruby nodded yes too...she like Archie a lot and she wants to help save him, plus she has noted the changes in Regina. David just stood still.

Snow looked at her prince with a bit of wondering. “Charming?”

David let out an exasperated sigh: “Snow, this woman has tried to kill you...me...our daughter...she imprisoned us here....”

Snow White rolled her eyes at the man she loved: “...yes, imprisoned here in the land of indoor plumbing, the internet, and that ESPN you are soooo in love with! Look...all of this started with ME. I want to END it! And I guess that Regina deserves a chance.” Then Snow White gave him that look. Charming looked at Snow, then looked at Regina and addressed the Evil Queen. “Ok, I’m willing to give you a chance, but you have prove to me that you are no longer evil.”

Regina had to respond. The narrow views of what good and evil was brought her to the brink, and on this she had to take a stand: “Look, Charming. I am sick and tired of being stuffed in a box marked ‘good’ or ‘evil.’ The one thing I learned sitting with that Bug is that the only person I have to be is myself! Not the Evil Queen, or the Mayor, or a “good person”....but me! Regina. Mills. ME. And sometimes I’m good, and sometimes I’m evil. And sometimes I’m both. I just have to know when to be which one. And I have a news flash, Charming. You’re no better...nor is anyone else in this town, not even Archie....or Hook....or even my mother! Got it?”

Everyone got the message. But most important, everyone saw that the fire was back in those chocolate fudge eyes. To Ruby, this was the woman she had plotted against...and maybe secretly wanted in her pack. To Snow, it meant the defeated, broken woman she and her daughter save only an hour ago disappeared, and in her place was a woman of passion and purpose. A woman she at one time loathed, also greatly admired.

So did Emma. Admired from the moment she first laid her blue eyes on her a year a half ago. She felt proud. Honored. And if you really had to ask, horny.

So it was decided. Archie had to be on that invisible ship. Probably as a prison of Cora...possibly Hook as well. Their advantage is that they could see the ship. Their main plan was to rescue Archie. Snow said that a war council had to be called to formalize a plan. There were hugs and then Snow, Charming, and Ruby departed for Grannie’s (Snow said before leaving that Emma and Regina had to be there, because Emma’s sheriff and....quoting Snow “...sometimes to BEAT the Evil Queen, you have to BE the Evil Queen!”).

And as Snow mentioned to Charming that she had just one more thing to pass by him as she closed the door on the office, Emma and Regina were left alone. The blonde looked down for a second, then up in Regina’s eyes. “One thing before we go to Granny’s. Something I should have done on day one that could have save us a lot of trouble.” 

“And what would be that, Ms. Swan?”

Emma gave a smirk, said “This,” put Regina’s face cupped in both hands, then pressed her lips on her adversary's. Regina returned that kiss, and when they separated, both were sporting huge smiles.

“You are right, Ms. Swan, this could have saved us a lot of trouble.”

And right before the could do a repeat performance, and angry man was heard screaming at his wife..

_**“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN YOU MADE REGINA MAYOR AGAIN?!?!?! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR DAMNED MIND, WOMAN???”** _

And, if only for that kiss and that moment, Regina Coralina Mills, the Honorable Reinstated Mayor of Storybrooke, Maine, was happy she didn't cross the line.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Assault on the ship

It was a very quick “war council,” such as it was. It was decided that only a select number of people would know that they were on to Cora and Hook. They would go on with the “funeral” for “Archie.” Actually, with the help of the camera on Emma’s Droid that was not affected by Cora’s cloaking, and the autopsy by Dr. Whale, it was confirmed that the dead man was indeed the owner of the fish show on the pier, not Archie Hopper.

The service did go on as planned, and Snow gave a beautiful heartfelt eulogy, even though she knew that the dearly departed was not exactly the guest of honor. Everything went swimmingly, despite Grumpy’s pointed questions about “going home.” And it did get Snow to thinking: despite everything, Storybrooke, ME, was not such a bad place. If Regina really wanted to torture everyone, there were a million places she could have plopped them into. Plus, the White Queen was feeling pretty good about the Evil Queen right now. Just maybe, this was home after all.

The following night, it was agreed: Granny and the Mother Superior (aka Blue Fairy) would look after Henry. Snow, David, Red, Emma, and despite some very loud protests, Regina would move in (Regina’s argument, “I started this, I think I should help finish it.)

They got to the edge of the pier, the camera guiding them to the Jolly Roger. The problem was how navigating onto the boat would be accomplished. The answer to that came from a surprising source.

As Regina was feeling herself around the boat she ran into Belle French. There was a brief stare-down between the Mayor and the Librarian, considering neither had much love for the other. It was Regina who broke the silence: “What are you doing here, Ms. French?”

“I was about to do the same question, Mad-damn Mayor.” Belle had to twist the knife. “Personally, I’m trying to stop Rumple from doing something stupid...”

“Good luck, Belle tried. As for me...and my friends. We’re here to rescue Archie.”

“One...Archie’s dead. Two, you don’t have any friends.”

Emma cut in on the conversation’ “Well, three, Belle, we have evidence that points to Archie being alive AND on this ship....”

And then Snow chimed in: “...and four, Regina does have friends.” Snow White waved her hand behind her. “All of us..”

Regina then gazed into Belle’s eyes trying to communicate, even though time was short: “Look there are several things I want to say to you, ‘I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart’ being one of them, but we don’t have time, We need to save Archie. By the way, what stupid thing does Gold intend to do?”

“If I’m right....kill Hook.”

Eye rolls and exasperated sighs were almost unanimous. But Charming said this: “At least if Gold is dealing with with Hook they could keep themselves busy while we see if Archie’s here...which, by the way there’s no guarantee.”

Regina added, “Plus I don’t want to pull anything big yet. I don’t know what’s Mother’s planning and if we tip her hand, I’m afraid of what she might do.

Ruby: “So how do we get onto a boat we can’t see?”

Belle held up one hand, then reached into her purse, got something, and started spreading it around.

Regina: “Bird seed...?”

Little yellow nuggets were spread all thrown up and landed. How they landed showed and incline up to what the sextet assumed was the deck.

Then Belle who could smirk with the best of them, announced, “All aboard...”

Emma, Red, David stayed on the pier, in case someone came out or went in. Regina, Snow, and Belle went searching for either Gold or Archie. They kept hearing noises...footsteps maybe. Possibly Hook or Gold...maybe even Cora. Finally, the trio heard a muffled noise. Regina had a small but powerful flashlight on her. The enter the room, and they struck pay dirt: Archie Hopper, alive and kicking, and except for a few bruises, none the worse for wear.

Snow and Belle worked on the ropes. Regina undid the gag, if for no other reason that she wanted to hear the first words from the bug. The one who once said that the Evil Queen would never change. And in the end, the only one who knew she could did,

When the gag was removed, the Evil Queen and the Cricket exchanged tear-enhanced smiles. And for a millisecond, the doctor thought back to the night in which he told a war council that Regina would never fall on the side of good. Ironic that the Evil Queen would be one to save him.

And then...

“So Ms. Mills, you have come to apologize?”

“Don’t flatter yourself, bug, I still have a session booked for Thursday..”

Belle rolled her eyes and Snow pinched the bridge of her nose, trying not to giggle. Like Martin & Lewis, they just picked up the routine from where they left.

But with the sound of footsteps, the four knew the show would have to move to another stage.

“Join hands. We’ll be out of here in a second!” Everyone quickly followed suit. Everyone except Belle.

“C’mon Belle, we don’t much time!” Snow White was desperately wondering why Belle wanted to stay.

Belle urgently whispered a response: “Look, I was there when you and Emma said that you believed in Regina.” Then she looked at her former captor with a look of understanding. “He needs to know someone believes in him, too.”

With heavy footsteps getting closer, Regina smiled and told her fellow prisoner. “Tell him there’s hope...even for him. Now go get your man!”

Belle gave Snow and Archie a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, stopped for a moment and looked at Regina. Then she hugged and kissed her former enemy.”

“Here Goes...!” And with that from Regina, purple smoke started to fill the room, and within moments, Belle was the only one in the room...and then she left, hoping to find her Beast for the Captain did.

Outside there were some crew members who stepped outside of the still cloaked vessel. Only to have each the opportunity to be sent via express to Dreamland by either Prince Charming, The Big Bad Wolf, or the Savior. If you asked them, they seemed to have the time of their lives out there, swatting the bad guys like fugitives from a Stephen J. Cannell Production. As a matter of fact, Emma was just about to pull out a pencil, pretend it was a cigar, and say something like “I love it when a plan comes together...” a thick plume of purple smoke appeared in front of them

Ruby: “Reinforcements...?”

The three musketeers were ready and then charged at the smoke. But when the purple cleared...

David was on top of Snow, Ruby was on top of Archie and.....

“Ms. Swan, I knew you were impetuous...but....” That little line earned the mayor a quick kiss on the lips from the Sheriff. 

There were eye rolls, giggles, and one incredulous Prince Charming who wanted to know what the hell was going on.

And as everyone got up, and started hugging Archie, Regina said, “I can explain it all on the way to the Rabbit Hole.”

Red: “By the way, where’s Belle?”

Archie: “She said she had unfinished business.” And as angry voices started to drift from the invisible ship, voices that sounded like Gold, Hook, and Belle, everyone knew what that unfinished business was.

Ruby volunteered to hang around just in case...Belle was her friend, after all....and the rest headed for the Rabbit Hole, when Emma suddenly decides for a chance of plans....

“Let’s go home instead. It’s time Henry realized saviors sometimes blow it...”

TBC


End file.
